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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Review: Hulk #30.1

This week we are treated with two Point One titles, Hulk and Uncanny X-Force. My Uncanny X-Force review will be out soon, but here is how I feel about Hulk.

Hulk #30.1 actually follows the Red Hulk, Former General Thunderbolt Ross. Right off the bat, we learn that Ross had a few issues with the Hulk and misused his power in an effort to destroy him. He faked his own death and ended up storming the White House. But now he is a good guy, working for Steve Rodgers and Bruce Banner, the Original Hulk. His crazy monster hating apparently spread to an officer that replaced him when he "died." Now he is being hunted just like he hunted Banner, by his friend, General Reggie Fortean, who doesn't know that his old friend is who he is trying to kill.

The Hulk Point One issue provided a great background for the Red Hulk character, while starting a new story. Ross is a compelling character that truly seems torn about what he has done in the past and what he is today. Not to mention, he has got a little attitude, which I love. However, wasn't this supposed to be about the Hulk? Bruce Banner never makes an appearance. I feel like I did for Amazing Spider-Man, they promised me one thing and gave me another. Marvel bait and switch! I know that this is supposed to bring in new readers and introduce them to characters but let's be honest for a second. These new readers have to want to read comics, so they already have some geek background and probably know something about these characters.

Yes, I know that Red Hulk is on the cover like Venom was on the cover of ASM. However, as a potential new fan, I have the right to expect the title character to be in their own introduction story. If I wanted to be introduced to Red Hulk, I would buy a Red Hulk book!

As a introduction to a character, this was a good story. It was ruined for me by the fact that I feel like Marvel is using the classics to sell me the second string cast.

4 comments:

The point of me taking part of in reading the Point One issues is that I didn't read Marvel before this. As someone who doesn't know, it is a very real criticism to feel used. Especially since they did it before with Amazing Spider-man. To someone that reads Marvel, as I am sure that you do, I can understand how you might come to that conclusion. But for Marvel to ask completely new readers to try out books, they needed to be a little more aware of what they put out there.

This particular Hulk book has only ever starred the Red Hulk. The prior 30 issues all focused on the Red Hulk. The fact that you bring preconceived notions to the book that don't line up with reality just isn't a valid criticism of the book. They may have focused on Venom in the spiderman book but in HULK they are focusing on the main character of this series.

The criticism isn't against the book itself. It's against Marvel. They're trying to bring in new readers who are unfamiliar to the Marvel Universe. They have been focusing on the more established and recognizable characters like Wolverine, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and even Deadpool. Why wouldn't someone who is unfamiliar with the books assume the Hulk was about the original Hulk? I know the MU, but I don't follow the Hulk, so I didn't know this was going to be about General Ross. I didn't even know this had happened. I had originally thought the comic would be about Bruce Banner too. It's not like the Hulk hasn't changed colors before. Marvel should have taken into account that the non-readers they were trying to reach would be more familiar with the Green Hulk and that's who the Point One should have been about. They dropped the ball on this one.